The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-10-01
THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE
POPE.

conveys the information that Leo Kill
is about to engage in a campaign for
temporal domain, and that the patient
waiting" which has heretofore character
lied the Vatican in regard to its temporal
power is now to be followed by aggres-
sive work. In other words the pope is
soon to engage in political campaign in
which regular electioneering methods are
to be adopted with the object of secur-
ing the election of the Vatican candi-
dates to seats in the italian chamber of
deputies. To this end, it is stated, an
active canvass will soon commence and
lively times may be expected in the king
dom. The present is considered an op-
perfume moment for the beginning of the
agitation. The Vatican has already a
sufficient number of adherents in the
representative body of Italy to make its
voice potential, and Leo having made
peace with Prussia, and secured a good
understanding with the European courts,
the church may now give its attention to
settling in some form its long standing
dispute with the Italian government.
The correspondent who sends the dis
patch, announcing this determination of
the Vatican, is somewhat more argu-
mentative in behalf of the papacy than
we might expect in the work of mere
purveyor of news. His dispatch is evil
IDENTIFY colored by his own sympathy for
k1,o
moment that Plus TX. was deprived of
his possession of the Palazzo Quirinal,
whose construction by the church lasted
through the reign of four popes, to the
present time, the holy see by the author
| ity vested in Plus TX and his successor,
Leo XIII., has contended that the sacri-
legious act of Victor Emanuel virtually
made the pope a prisoner and that the
temporal power of the church was wrest-
ed and withheld from its lawful custo-
dian only by the right of might and not
by any right that morality or equity could
sanction.
From this position" the dispatch con-
tinues, "the head of the church has never
wavered. The streets of Rome have
| been as free to the holy father as She
gardens of the Vatican palace, yet dur
ing the more than sixteen years that the
spot has represented all that remains of
the once broad territorial domains of the
church, the vicar of Christ has not set
his foot in the streets of the eternal city,
where once the progress of the pope was
pageant whose magnifcence was un-
surpassed throughout the world.
"Ihe princely sum which the italian
! government has annually set apart to
the credit of the pope, and for which
special note has been engraved and year
! ly deposited in the Italian treasury, has
renamed untouched. Nowhere else has
ever beer shown so complete an example
of patient endurance, determination of
purpose, and consistent adherence to
principle. The line of conduct mapped
out by Plus TX, and persistently observ-
ed by his successor, has had no per-
ceptible effect upon the Italian govern
ment or the Italian people, but it has
had it's effect nevertheless. Tue pope
has observed that conviction has been
reached at last, and the same patient per-
E6N6TduCS lLhl HIS IndEh6u DlS 6uuuT-
ance of practical Imprisonment and de-
privation of his rights, will be exerted
upon the people primarily and the gov
ernment ultimately, to bring about the
eession of some portion of the kingdom
to the church absolutely and irrevocR-
| bly,"
1t will be in order now to watch the
turn of affairs in Italy and to see wheth-
er the pope's alleged forecast of the stu
alton is borne out by the facts. No doubt
the Vatican will enter the political field
for the purpose of increasing its strength
in the Chamber of Deputies in a more
formal and avowed manner than has
heretofore been its custom; but it is safe
to say that the sanguine writer of this
notable dispatch, will not live to see the
day he evidently believes is nearing its
dawn. The holy father will never again
| rule square yard of Roman territory.
Revolutions" in Victor Hugo's phrase,
'never go backward" and all the signs of
the times indicate that the united Italy
of CavOur and Garabaldi was never
stronger with the people, and never less
I likely than at the present hour of yield
ing to the persistent papal claim. Leo
KILL, like his great predecessor, may in
| dulge in the delusion which he cleaves
to with such tenaclty that he is the "Pris-
oner of the Vatican" The Italian peo-
pie know that this is only a convenient
form of playing on the eympathies Of the
Catholic world and that the pope is as
free to-day in Rome as King Humbert is
| himself. II the pope chooses to main
tain this fiction to the end of his days it
! is his own MATTER. Neither the "patient
perseverance" with which the game has
been played for sixteen years, nor con-
stant adherence to the alleged principle
involved, will make any practical differ
ence in the result. Italy is now in pos
| session OF her own capital and her people
united in a national government Rome
can never again belong to the pope, and
/ it is not likely that he would accept any
other portion Of the kingdom for his ter
| ritory. Even that he stands in no chance
OF getting. The Vatican might as we'll
rest content and adapt itself to the situa-
ton, as it will have to do sooner or later.
The sovereignty of the church ia tenn
poTal affairs has passed away forever